JUST IN: Downtown Dayton’s ‘PNC building’ lands two big tenants

A central downtown Dayton building, known as the “PNC building,” will soon have two new tenants — the local office of the Berry Network/Dex YP and local U.S. Census Bureau staff.

The Berry Network will have about 19,000 square feet of the building at 6 N. Main St. Census personnel will take about 7,000 square feet, said Tracy Rutherford, with Crest Commercial Realty, who represented the building’s owner, Olymbec, in the leasing deals.

The Berry Network today is based at 3100 Kettering Blvd., Moraine. The Berry Network’s local history is long, stretching back to the founding of L.M. Berry and Co. in 1910, when Loren Berry began selling advertising in phone directories.

The Berry Network was born as a subsidiary of the Berry Co. in 1960. In 1986 Berry Network and the Berry Co. were acquired by BellSouth. In 2007, BellSouth was acquired by AT&T, and five years later, the Berry Network was transferred to YP Holdings, a marketing and search platform provider and publisher of the Real Yellow Pages and YP.com.

“As a result of our search for a vibrant and dynamic work space, Berry Network/DexYP plans to move from Moraine to the former PNC building in downtown Dayton,” she said. “We feel strongly that being in the heart of the city will put us in a great position to serve our clients and to fuel our future growth.”

The two tenants represent a success story as Dayton officials sometimes struggle to convince downtown landlords to invest in buildings in order to draw jobs.

Quebec-based real estate investor Olymbec last October bought the PNC Bank building. At the time, the building at Third and Main streets a law firm as a tenant, Bieser, Greer & Landis LLP. CityWide is in the building but has a separately owned space.

Besides Dex and the U.S. Census, Olymbec also owns the 111 Building, which it leased to Taylor Communications, the former Standard Register.

Olymbec has scooped up both downtown office buildings for relatively low prices. It bought the building formerly home to PNC Bank about a year ago for $1.1 million.

“They are willing to get them for cheap but they aren’t afraid to spend money to get them occupied, which is refreshing,” Rutherford said Thursday.

Rutherford said Olymbec is planning significant upgrades to the building, including giving the lobby a face-lift.